The long-awaited film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Gothic classic Wuthering Heights has been officially given a release date. According to Variety, Warner Bros. will debut the film on February 13, 2026, just in time for Valentine’s Day. (Also Read | Margot Robbie to star opposite Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights film adaptation)
Directed, written and produced by Emerald Fennell, the film stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, who are set to bring the turbulent romance between Katherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff to the big screen.
Emerald, best known for the Academy Award-winning Promising Young Woman and recent hit Saltburn, returns to the director’s chair for Wuthering Heights.
Their collaboration with MRC and Margot’s production company, LuckyChap, is their second joint venture following the success of Saltburn.
The film will also feature performances from Hong Chau, Alison Oliver and Shazad Latif. Emerald’s rendition of Wuthering Heights is one of the most anticipated releases in the coming years.
According to Variety, the filmmaker has long expressed his passion for the Gothic genre and explained his connection to it in an interview.
“I’ve always been obsessed with the Gothic,” Emerald said, “it’s a genre where comedy and horror, disgust and desire, sex and death are forever linked, where every exchange is fueled by violence or the threat of sex.” Is heavy. Or both.”
She notes that her fascination with the Gothic extended beyond Brontë’s work to writers such as Daphne du Maurier and Angela Carter, whose stories were characterized by “disturbing erotic power”.
With this perspective, Fennell is expected to bring a unique, contemporary touch to the timeless themes of passion, obsession, and tragedy that define Wuthering Heights.
Margot Robbie will reportedly play Katherine Earnshaw, the fierce and complex heroine at the center of the story. Jacob Elordi, who most recently starred in Emerald’s Saltburn, will play the iconic role of Heathcliff, the Earnshaw family’s brooding, vengeful foster son.
While plot details of the adaptation have been kept under wraps, the original Wuthering Heights revolves around the doomed love story between Catherine and Heathcliff, whose fiery and passionate relationship leads to both personal destruction and social upheaval.
The story explores themes of class, vengeance and the supernatural, set against the stormy moors of Yorkshire. The film is financed by MRC, the studio behind Saltburn and the critically acclaimed American Fiction. The film is scheduled to be shot in the UK in 2025, with pre-production on Wuthering Heights set to begin.
